Imperatives, Modals and Conditionals

The Complete Verb: Forms, Functions, and Meanings

Traditional grammar defines the complete verb as a main verb and all its auxiliaries.

We have already begun to learn some of the meanings and forms of the complete verb, but here I will try to bring them all together.  The complete verb carries four different features in English: Tense, Aspect, Mood, and Voice.

Tense

Tense refers to the inflections (changes to the base) that reflect a time reference.  Theoretically, English has only 2 tenses: past and nonpast.  The past inflection is either a suffix, –(e)d,  (walked, hoped) or an internal change in the verb base (think-thought).  The nonpast inflection is the suffix –(e)s (walks, kisses) or no change to the base (a 0 suffix).  We clearly use nonpast to refer to present time (He drives me nuts.), and we can also use it to refer to future time (My plane leaves at 6:00 tomorrow).  In fact, we must use it when the future time reference is located in a subordinate clause (If it rains tomorrow, I’ll be mad.) (When my check arrives, I’ll spend it on myself.).

Conceptually, then, future time can be referred to, but English does not inflect (put a suffix on or internally alter) a verb to refer to the future, and that is why, technically, English is said to have only two tenses.  To refer to the future, either “present” (i.e. nonpast) tense is used or the modal auxiliary will is used.  A modal is not a tense.  Practically, however, we can say that English has three tenses if we consider the addition of an auxiliary a change of sorts to the base.  Since this is easier to understand, it is typically the way tense is taught.

Aspect

Aspect refers to inflections or auxiliary additions (English) that reflect a focus on a particular phase of an action.  English has two aspects as well as the absence of aspect.  A simple verb form does not pick out any particular phase or aspect at all.  The progressive picks out the middle phase for emphasis, and the perfect picks out the completion as the focus.  Both the progressive and the perfect aspect can be combined in the same verb form.

Other languages have forms that reflect other aspects, too, such as the habitual, the durative, the incipient, and so on.  In English, these concepts are often conveyed lexically (by word meanings) more than by grammatical structure.  For example, we talk about the incipient phase by using the word start or begin.  We can talk about the durative by using keep or keep on.  Other times, we use certain words in special constructions, such as be about to (I am about to throw up.) for a pre-incipient phase or used to for a past habitual (I used to live in Idaho.).  Other times we simply attach an aspect to the simple, normally aspect-less, verb form.  This is true of Simple Present, which more often seems to refer to a present habitual action (I eat breakfast.) rather than just a whole action at the present time (He shoots.  He scores!).

Tense-Aspect Interaction

There are twelve different verb forms that combine tense, the modal will, and aspect, and these twelve different forms are traditionally referred to as the twelve tenses.  The reasons for not being technically accurate are twofold: 1) the concept of aspect is difficult, and is avoided by simply ignoring aspect and sticking only to tense, and 2) the argument of why will is not a tense is also avoided.  Traditionally, then, the focus is on conceptualizing meaning, not conceptualizing form, and students are simply taught the name of a verb form and its meanings, and the term tense is used as a superordinate term in spite of its technical inaccuracy.

Mood

Mood refers to inflections or auxiliary additions (English) that reflect a speaker’s attitude about an action, especially in regard to the necessity, possibility, probability, and so on of an action.  In English the modals are called modals because they refer to mood (Modal is the adjective form of mood, and the full term, modal auxiliary, means auxiliaries that reflect mood.).

The default mood of a speaker is simply to declare information or indicate the existence of some phenomenon.  Therefore, the automatic mood of the traditional twelve tenses (tense-aspect combinations) is the indicative mood, which is used in declarative sentences.  A speaker can alternatively ask for information or question the existence of some phenomenon.  Some languages mark their verbs for the interrogative mood, but English does not.  English simply uses the indicative mood in interrogative sentences that are marked by a transformed word order and/or transformed intonation (voice pitch over the length of the sentence).

The imperative mood is used to give commands.  In English, the imperative is the same as the unmarked infinitive or base form.

The subjunctive mood is used to discuss unreal situations.  Some languages, particularly languages of Europe, have fully inflected verb forms for the subjunctive mood.  English does not do this, but instead adds certain modal auxiliaries or selects odd (infrequent) verb forms or can use the remnants of an earlier subjunctive form.  For example, If I were you, I would dump him right now expresses the irreality and impossibility of me being or becoming you and, therefore, uses the subjunctive were.  Were is not the Simple Past, a fact we can see because, to make a declaration of a past fact, we say I was tired after class yesterday, not I were tired after class yesterday.  In fact, the time reference in the statement If I were you, I would dump him right now is clearly not the past at all because the sentence itself states the time reference is now, the present.  The verb form were is best described as the present subjunctive and its meaning refers to an unreal, impossible, or hypothetical present situation.  The completion of the hypothetical statement uses a modal, would, to convey the ongoing irreality of the scenario.  One way to try to make sense of the forms and the seeming mismatch with meaning is to think of the hypothetical meaning as “one step off of reality.”  It almost makes sense then; The typical English forms for conditionals and other sentences of questionable reality are the base form for future, the past form for present, and the past perfect form for past.  Examples: I recommend that he be drawn and quartered (future looks like base form); If I were you, I’d dump him right now (present subjunctive looks like past); If you had listened to me, you wouldn’t have dated him at all (past hypothetical looks like past perfect).  Since English has been losing the subjunctive, native speakers commonly do use the simple past instead of the present subjunctive, saying If I was you, I’d dump him right now.  This is not prescriptively acceptable yet (i.e., it’s still nonstandard).

To hedge (weaken) or strengthen the sentence’s mood, a speaker in English opts to use a modal auxiliary.  To add a feeling of necessity or obligation, for example (strengthening), a speaker may include the auxiliary must.  To add a feeling of uncertainty (weakening), a speaker might include the auxiliary may.

The traditional meanings of the modals are given in the table handout on modals.  A more theoretical view is provided by the second table on the handout.

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